Ello:
I see your point. It took me some time to learn LW. But I also liked the GUI right at the first glance and there are several reasons for it:

• it is not colored and therefore does not distract from your work
  
• it does not uses icons, only text so even a beginner understands instantly for what a command is made for
  
• the tabbed command panel folows a clear logic
  
• all important commands have short-cuts and you can create your own
  

And if you look at videos of experienced LW users then you will realize that all of them do not click any buttons (or at least very seldom). They just work with the keyboard and the mouse. You are extremely fast then.

And don't forget that this software delivers all the goodies like hair and fur, physics simulation, cloth simulation, FK / IK animations and whatever you need for the big productions.

One really outstanding feature of LW is the Viper panel. It is a rendering-preview. I often use it to find the best set of properties for my materials. You can see your rendered image and it updates while you change properties like specularity, bumpyness or procedural shaders. It is no OpenGL preview. It is really a rendered scene that quickly changes materials in real-time.

This saves so much time if you try to make a perfect material.